Preliminary rendering of a new brewery to be built in 2014 for Karbach Brewing Co. The brewery would face Dacoma.

Preliminary rendering of a new brewery to be built in 2014 for Karbach Brewing Co. The brewery would face Dacoma.

Photo: Karbach Brewing Co.

Report says craft brewers add billions to Texas economy

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Texas ranks second only to California in the economic impact derived from craft brewing, a report from the Brewers Association says.

This burgeoning class of smaller, independently owned craft breweries, along with their distributors, retailers and bar/restaurant workers, added $2.3 billion to the Texas economy in 2012, the report says.

That's part of an estimated $33.9 billion national number cited in the report, which the industry group said measures "the total impact of beer brewed by craft brewers as it moves through the three-tier system (breweries, wholesalers and retailers), as well as all non-beer products that brewpub restaurants sell."

The Brewers Association said the nation's 2,000-plus craft breweries and brewpub restaurants sold 13.2 million barrels of beer with a retail value of nearly $12 billion during 2012.

The sales and impact figures do not include industry-dominant multibrand conglomerates such as Anheuser-Busch InBev, which has the capacity for 12.5 million barrels of beer annually at its Houston plant alone.

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Heady numbers

Texas ranked high among the states deriving the most economic benefit from craft brewing in 2012. The top five:

California: $4.7 billion economic impact

Texas: $2.3 billion

New York: $2.2 billion

Pennsylvania: $2 billion

Colorado: $1.6 billion

U.S. total: $33.9 billion

Brock Wagner, founder of Saint Arnold Brewing Co. in Houston, said that while he couldn't vouch for the exact numbers cited by the Brewers Association, he sees evidence of a craft-beer boom everywhere.

"When you multiply that over the (nearly) 30 million people living Texas, it's no surprise the economic impact in Texas is significant and continues to grow," he said.

For example, he said, Saint Arnold has been on a hiring spree the last couple of years and posted a local sales position just this week.

New breweries continue to open, while distributors and retailers increasingly focus on specialty and craft beers.

Wagner said groceries have expanded shelf space for craft beers, while new in-store bars deal exclusively in the same.

In a local example, Houston's fast-growing Karbach Brewing Co. recently announced plans to build a new brewery and dramatically increase the amount of beer it can make in the future. That facility, scheduled for completion by the end of 2014, would include an expanded visitors' area, a kitchen and a special-events space available to the public.

In San Antonio, the Freetail Brewing Co. brewpub has announced plans to build a second location to meet demand and take advantage of new distribution privileges granted last spring by the Texas Legislature's most dramatic overhaul of beer laws in 20 years.

Wagner said construction-related expenditures like that can have a major effect on the state's economy.

"That's when you see significant economic multipliers come into play," he said.